


Life Is Full of Choices

by Rellanka



Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [21]
Category: Final Fantasy VII (Video Game 1997), Final Fantasy VII Remake (Video Game 2020)
Genre: A different take on the typical Anastasia AU, Dub to Non-con, M/M, Possessive Sephiroth
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-02 04:54:46
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,549
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23919289
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rellanka/pseuds/Rellanka
Summary: After five years separation, finally Sephiroth has found Cloud once more. Anastasia AU.
Relationships: Sephiroth/Cloud Strife
Series: A Year Of Cloudy Skies [21]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1697269
Comments: 11
Kudos: 213





	Life Is Full of Choices

**Author's Note:**

> Could be an AU of the Original or Remake, but actually probably fits the Remake best.

Sephiroth frowned down into his scrying glass, rage burning in him quietly at the lack of results his efforts were producing. 

Cloud was alive. Sephiroth knew he was alive. There was no way that bright, beautiful soul that Sephiroth knew had been extinguished so easily. There would have been some sort of reaction in the magic that existed in the world, some sort of fundamental shifting. **Sephiroth** would have felt it. Even as he was piecing himself back together, fighting his way back from the afterlife, Sephiroth would have **known** it. 

And yet, he was still unable to find Cloud. 

With a snarl, Sephiroth finally turned from the glass to pace around the room for a moment, focusing on releasing some of his anger with each step so that he might have greater focus when he tried again. As he walked Sephiroth’s eyes caught sight of another mirror, and he paused to take stock of his reflection. 

He looked good, he supposed, for someone who had died and come back. There were no gaping wounds or rotting flesh. In fact, he had managed to erase all of his scars with his healing- except for one. The deep mark right above Sephiroth’s heart where Cloud had shoved a sword through his chest before pushing him from that tower was the one mark that he had kept. It sat on Sephiroth’s skin, healed until it was a scar and then no more. Sephiroth was proud to bear it, and so it stayed. 

But the sight of the mark reminded Sephiroth of his frustration, and he turned away after a moment to start pacing once more. 

Cloud had always been a bright, shining light in Sephiroth’s life. Ten years Sephiroth’s junior, the child had nonetheless latched onto the older boy from the moment they’d first caught sight of one another. Unlike so many others, the boy was never afraid of Sephiroth’s great magical potential, was instead awed by it instead. His obvious hero worship and quiet companionship had been both flattering and rather nice for the experience of having someone that truly wanted to be around him, and so Sephiroth had allowed the young Prince to join him in his studies of magic whenever the Prince had managed to sneak away from his minders. Throughout the years it was an event that had grown from occasions into a habit, until it seemed as if so much of Sephiroth’s life was spent in Cloud’s sweet presence that he didn’t know what to do without him. 

As a child, Cloud had been an adored if quiet companion, someone for Sephiroth to look out for and protect. As a teen, Cloud had been a friend, one that Sephiroth saw potential for great beauty in someday, an outward beauty to match the warmth and kindness of the person that Sephiroth knew. But not a beauty that Sephiroth considered any other way than as an absent thought of something that someone else might appreciate, not truly. He hadn’t ever looked at Cloud with any want other than friendship- until Cloud’s eighteenth birthday. The day that Cloud was officially introduced as an adult to the court. The day that Sephiroth had _seen_ ; had _wanted_. And after he’d finally torn his attention away from the sight of Cloud, he’d looked around to realize that other’s had seen, too. That _they_ wanted.

Wanted Cloud. Wanted **Sephiroth’s** Cloud. 

It was abruptly a sight that Sephiroth couldn’t bear. A threat to his relationship to Cloud that he wouldn’t tolerate. 

He’d tried to do things the right way, he truly had. He’d approached Cloud’s mother, he’d tried to get her to accept Sephiroth’s courtship. 

She had refused. Like all the others, she was afraid of his strength, of his great magical power, and she wasn’t about to leave her son in the care of a man that she couldn’t trust with his safety. 

Sephiroth had killed her for it. Sephiroth had killed her entire **court** for it, burning the castle down around them all, his power easily making it so that none of the Queen’s knights could reach him, could stop him. 

It was only when Cloud came that Sephiroth had fallen. It was only Cloud that Sephiroth would have ever allowed close. 

And it was only Cloud that had pushed him from the top of that tower and watched him fall. 

He had viewed it as a betrayal, at first, but it was one that Sephiroth forgave him for. He could understand why Cloud had been angry. He accepted his death as payment for what he had done to Cloud and his family. They were even now, in Sephiroth’s eyes. 

But now that the payment was done, and it was time for them to be together again. 

If only Sephiroth could **find** him. 

As he stood there, brooding and annoyed, shadows brought Sephiroth whispers of Cloud’s name brought far from the wind, and Sephiroth huffed in response. 

When he’d sent his magic to seek out any mention of Cloud, he hadn’t wanted false hope. But false hope had been all that had been coming after Tifa, Cloud’s cousin, had sent word far and wide that she was offering a reward for her the safe return of the cousin that had disappeared the same day that his mother’s castle fell. And so, far and wide, con artists and deluded women and men tried to claim it. 

For the first time in a long time, the mentions of Cloud were many. And were all false.

Still, tempting as the prospect was to ignore it, Sephiroth could not fail to check this lead. Chance was far too fickle for him to risk it when this could be the time that they were truly speaking of Cloud. 

It was good that he hadn’t. 

Because when he scryed where his magic had told him to look, there Cloud was. 

Haunted, pale, with Hojo’s magic hovering around him like a sickly aura, fading but not yet fully dispersed. Standing straight with an unsteadiness that made it look like one strong wind would push him over. Weak, and fragile, but **there** , and while Sephiroth would make Hojo pay dearly for whatever he had done to Sephiroth’s love, right now all of his focus, all of his attention was for Cloud, and Cloud alone. 

It was time for him to be at Sephiroth’s side once more.

Raising up his magic Sephiroth poured it into the glass, until the glass rippled like water and glowed with his power. And then Sephiroth stepped through. 

Cloud and his companions had interesting reactions when he appeared. He recognized two of them, and would have expected their reactions had he put enough attention into it to expect anything from them. They’d been knights in Cloud’s mother’s court, the large man with the gun for an arm, and the other slimmer man wearing a red bandana. The two others, a man and a woman, he did not recognize. 

But none of them mattered. 

All that mattered was Cloud, who stood glaring at Sephiroth with a deep, dark anger before reaching for an overly large sword on his back. One much bigger than any he had carried before. Sephiroth was interested in the new weaponry, but this wasn’t the time to play. So before Cloud could unsheathe it Sephiroth stopped him, his power wrapping around the sword and trapping it where it was. 

“Sephiroth!” Cloud snarled as he jerked at his sword, and Sephiroth savored the sound of his name on Cloud’s tongue like it was the finest of wines. It had been far too long.

Sephiroth could understand Cloud’s frustration. The idea of crossing blades with his love excited him, too, but this was not the time nor the place. 

No, they could spar as many times as Cloud liked- once they were back home. 

And so his power wrapped around Cloud’s mind and forced him into complacency. He pressed and pressed, even as his love groaned and clutched at his head, even as he fell prettily to his knees. He pressed until Cloud’s eyes burned green with the sign of Sephiroth’s power, nearly as beautiful as their usual blue. Sephiroth’s eyes greedily tracked each step as Cloud unsteadily got up and walked toward him at Sephiroth’s direction, and when Cloud finally stood before him Sephiroth gladly accepted the Prince into his embrace with a heart that sang a thousand hymns. With a hum, he pressed a kiss to his love’s forehead and breathed him in, ignoring his love’s companions as they shouted in protest. 

“This time, we’ll fly. Together.” Sephiroth whispered while staring deeply into Cloud’s eyes, looking past his own power and straight to the Cloud that was fighting and struggling against his control. The strength of Cloud’s push back against him was both concerning and exciting, but wasn’t something that would truly matter in the end. Cloud would realize how good they would be together sooner or later; Sephiroth would make sure of it. Until then, Sephiroth would just have to ensure that his love stayed fixed at Sephiroth’s side. Where he truly belonged. 

Spreading his wing with a shudder of power, Sephiroth beat it once, twice, and then the two of them were in the air. 

And on their way back home.

**Author's Note:**

> When They're Not Taken Away is the spoilery subtitle of this fic, lol. 
> 
> So, a bit of a different take on the typical Anastasia AU, because why not. Obviously, this takes place in a very different verse from that movie, so where Cloud winds up from here is anyone's guess. Honestly, he really could be with Sephiroth forever after this. Maybe even happily so eventually, though it would take a LOT to get there. 
> 
> Who took what role is probably clear enough, but ask me below if you had questions about anyone!
> 
> Thank you all for reading!


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